Towards Fort Fremont near the tip of the island known as Land’s End, you pass beneath the overhanging branches of the hanging tree. Legend has it, runaway slaves were once hung there as a warning to others. After dark, park under its branches, turn off you headlights and wait for the Land’s End light. It begins in the distance like a single headlight coming down the road, but as it grows closer to you, it’s much larger and not nearly as bright.

Some say it leaves you charged with static electricity. Others have reported being overtaken by the light. No one agrees on what the cause for the light might be, though it’s pretty much agreed upon that the light is real, and appears every night.

At least two people have died in auto accidents chasing down the light. Some say it’s nothing more than swamp gas. Others say it’s not bright enough to be swamp gas and it moves too fast. Scientific studies were made on it in the seventies with no definitive conclusion, though one idea which seems to pull more weight than others is that it’s an optical illusion created by the distant lights of headlights further down the road.

Another story is that it’s the ghost of several children who were killed when their bus slammed into the hanging tree.

And yet another is it's the ghost of the unfortunate slaves hung from the tree, as it’s been said to hover among its branches. Some say it’s the ghost of a union officer who lost his head in the war. Another story is that it’s the soul of a departed confederate soldier who was on patrol one evening, when surprised by union soldiers, sliced his head off and tossed it in the bay, and that now he roams the countryside, looking for his lost head.

Regardless... sure make for an interesting story.

The Vault of Edgar and Eliza Fripp, Chapel of ease on St. Helena Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The vault has a story of it's own.

Planters who inhabited the area left the island with the arrival of Union forces in 1861, and the church never regained its stature. Union soldiers used it for services during the war, and northerners who came to the area, after the war to educate and train the former slaves.

Soldiers vandalized the door of Fripps vault. Eventually it was decided to brick up the entrance. The story goes workmen sealed the vault, only to return the following day to find the bricks removed and neatly stacked beside it. Police assured that no one had been in the area the previous night long enough to complete such a task. Workers were convinced something supernatural occurred so the job remained unfinished. Today the vault is empty and the door half-sealed by bricks.

The Tabby construction has held up fairly well considering it was built in 1740.

Some claim the island of St. Helena is the oldest settlement in the US, discovered by a Spaniard named Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón  in 1520.

You can see more pictures from a maternity shoot it did here

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